Three players who could improve the Pittsburgh Pirates’ offense right now

The Pittsburgh Pirates offense so far this year has been disappointing, to say the least. Despite the pitching staff giving the Bucs plenty of chances to win, the team is below .500 at the time of writing this. Of their 21 losses, 14 have been within three runs. While expecting a win in every close game is unreasonable, even coming away with the W in just five or six of these contests would put a much different spin on the season so far.

Obviously, it’s still early, and giving up now wouldn’t be smart. If the Pirates’ offense played even at an average level, they probably would have come away with the W in five or six of the close losses. The hitting hasn’t been great, but here are some players that the Pirates could call upon that may be able to give the line-up a much-needed boost.

Nick Gonzales

The Pirates took Nick Gonzales seventh overall in the 2020 draft. After steadily climbing the minor league ladder, Gonzales made his MLB debut last year, but it wasn’t very pretty. In 128 plate appearances, Gonzales batted just .209/.268/.348 with a .268 wOBA and 64 wRC+. The former first-rounder struck out 28.1 percent of the time, which isn’t good. But more worrisome was his extremely poor 4.8 percent walk rate.

Gonzales was sent back to Triple-A to open the 2024 season, and he has been nothing short of spectacular for Indy to start the year. Through 128 plate appearances, he is batting .360/.422/.596 with a .445 wOBA, resulting in a 166 wRC+. He already has a whopping 14 doubles to go along with three triples and two dingers. The infielder is striking out a lot less frequently so far compared to previous seasons, with only a 17.2 percent K%. But he’s also not walking as often, with a 7.8 percent BB%. 

Gonzales had trouble in previous seasons against off-speed and breaking stuff, but it hasn’t given him nearly as much trouble this season. So far this year, the numbers are a lot more promising. He is currently slashing .311/.338/.492 with a 30.4 percent whiff rate and 89.3 MPH exit velocity against off-speed/breaking pitches. That’s a massive step forward from his .225/.317/.424 triple-slash, 39.1 percent whiff rate, and 84.5 MPH exit velo against the same pitches last year.

Gonzales might never be an elite breaking/off-speed hitter, but it’s clear that something has changed. A near nine percent decrease in swing and miss rate, as well as a near five MPH uptick in exit velocity on these pitches, is extremely promising to see, even if it is in a small sample size. Gonzales is now on his way to Pittsburgh, and if he can carry that adjustment over, he’ll be a solid hitter for the Pirates.

Billy McKinney

I know a lot of people want Jake Lamb up to take Rowdy Tellez’s role as the lefty first baseman. While I wouldn’t be opposed to Lamb being the next guy up, I think Billy McKinney would be a better fit. While he’s not producing as well as Lamb at Triple-A, McKinney has more recent success in the Major Leagues and showed some promise last year for the New York Yankees.

McKinney batted .227/.329/.406 with a .315 wOBA and 101 wRC+ in 147 plate appearances. While he struck out in just over a quarter of his plate appearances with a 26.5 percent K%, he also drew a ton of walks with an 11.6 percent BB%. McKinney also provided above-average pop, going yard a half dozen times and having a .189 isolated slugging with the Bronx Bombers.

But here are some other things that were promising about his season. McKinney posted both an above-average 89.1 MPH exit velocity and a 41.1 percent hard-hit rate. But his 12.1 percent barrel rate was the best of his career by far. He had a very similar exit velo and barrel rate as Chicago Cubs’ All-Star shortstop Dansby Swanson.

That’s not the only promising aspect of McKinney’s 2023 season. He also had a .346 xwOBA and .471 xSLG. Both are well above average marks. These aren’t the only stats with a predictive factor that put McKinney in a positive light. Baseball Prospectus’ DRC+ put him at 104. McKinney also made better swing decisions. His 66.5 percent zone swing rate was slightly better than his career average. But his 21.3 percent chase rate in ‘23 was the second-best of his career.

McKinney certainly wasn’t a bad hitter last year. He had a .726 OPS, .315 wOBA, and 101 wRC+, making him about a league-average batter. On top of that, the numbers under the hood were extremely promising. While McKinney only has a 97 wRC+ at Triple-A right now, I definitely think, given how his numbers from 2023 look, he’d be a better option than Jake Lamb.